Ghana is the Global Top Reformer in Improving
Access to Credit and still Overall, the Easiest Place To Do Business in
West
Africa.
Accra,
Ghana, November 4, 2010  Ghana
has established Africas newest centralized
Collateral Registry and by improving credit information and legal
rights
through granting an operating license to a private credit bureau, the
West
African country led the world in making it easier for businesses to
obtain
credit.

This
is a finding of Doing Business 2011: Making a Difference for
Entrepreneurs,
the eighth in a series of the flagship annual reports published by IFC
and the
World Bank benchmarking the regulations that enhance business activity
and those
that constrain it. The
report presents
qualitative indicators on business regulation and the protection of
property
rights for 183 economies  from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. The data are current as of
June 2010.
In
the past year 27 economies in Sub-Saharan
Africa implemented 49 regulatory reforms to improve their business
environment. Three
countries  Rwanda,
Cape Verde and Zambia  rank among the top 10 worldwide on improvement
in the
ease of doing business based on the number and impact of changes to
business
regulations between June 2009 and May 2010.
In
the sub region, Ghana
remains overall
the easiest place to do business and ranks tops in 2 other indicators 
Registering Property and Paying Taxes.
Sierra Leone is the easiest place in Start a Business and
provides the
best Protection for Investors; Burkina Faso provides simplified
regulations for
getting a Construction Permit, Cape Verde tops in Trading Across
Borders and
Enforcing Contracts while neighbouring Cote dIvoire makes it easiest
in legally
Closing a Business.
I
am pleased that Ghana implemented
reforms in Getting Credit, one of the 9 indicators of the report and
has
maintained its overall ranking as the easiest place to do business in
West
Africa. IFC working
with SECO has provided
advisory support in improving Secured Transactions in Ghana. However, there are
clearly
opportunities
especially in deepening the products and scope of the financial markets
to
ensure that the legal and regulatory framework established by the
Borrowers and
Lenders Act; the credit reference bureau and the Collateral Registry
actually
translates into affordable long term credit for firms, especially the
large SME
market said Mary Jean Moyo, IFC Country Manager for Ghana. Interest rates in Ghana
remain high and there
are other areas such as infrastructure and the provision of reliable
and
affordable energy which while not measured by the Doing
Business report has a direct impact on the overall
investment
climate and thus the ability of Ghana to develop a true competitive
edge in the
region and globally.
This
year, Doing Business 2011 introduces
a new indicator  Getting
Electricity. This
and the Employing
Workers indicators are not included in the ranking on the on the
overall ease
of doing business ranking. This
report
also features cumulative 5 year trends of the focus and pace of legal
and
regulatory reform in the economies surveyed.

Since
2005, about 85% of the worlds
economies have made it easier for local entrepreneurs to operate,
through 1,511
improvements to business regulation.
Among the 30 most-improved economies during those five
years, a third
are in Sub-Saharan Africa  Burkina Faso, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali,
Mauritius,
Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and Sierra Leone.


About
the Doing Business
report series
Doing
Business analyzes
regulations that apply to an economys businesses during their life
cycle, including start-up and operations, trading across borders,
paying taxes,
and closing a business. Doing
Business
does not measure all aspects of the business environment that matter to
firms
and investors. For
example, it does not
measure security, macroeconomic stability, corruption, skill level, or
the
strength of financial systems. Its
findings have stimulated policy debates in more than 80 economies and
enabled a
growing body of research on how firm-level regulation relates to
economic
outcomes across economies. For
more
information about the Doing Business report series, please visit:
www.doingbusiness.org

Ease of Doing Business 2011 in
Ghana data double click on link below

http://bit.ly/aWXsdK
Doing Buinsess 2011 Africa
Regional Press Release

http://bit.ly/b43NiT
Doing Business 2011 Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zuRH1TiAT0
Doing Business 2011
Africa Regional Fact Sheet

http://bit.ly/adgjs1
Doing Business 2011 ECOWAS
profile

http://bit.ly/aYeCnF
For
Doing
Business 2011 Full Report

http://bit.ly/aAC1Va
About
the World Bank Group
The
World Bank Group is one of
the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries. It comprises
five closely
associated
institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
(IBRD)
and the International Development Association (IDA), the International
Finance
Corporation (IFC); the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA);
and the
International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Each
institution plays a
distinct role in the
mission to fight poverty and improve living standards for people in the
developing world. For
more information,
please visit www.worldbank.org,
www.miga.org,
and www.ifc.org.


Contacts
for region-specific queries on Doing Business 2011:
Sub-Saharan
Africa - Anglophone



Nana
Yaa Ofori-Atta +233 (244) 343-888
E-mail: noforiatta@ifc.org
Ghana
Kafu Kofi Tsikata +233 (244) 312-540
E-mail : Ktsikata@worldbank.org